Women’s History Month celebrates the rights women have struggled to gain throughout history. Women started formally protesting in 1848 for their rights. Now, in 2025, many of those rights are being stripped from women all across the world and taking opportunities for girls who didn’t get experience control over what happens to them and being able to speak up about it, specifically pregnancies.
Women being able to control their bodies shouldn’t be a hassle just because a man said that a woman can or can’t have children or when and where she should be a mother. Women’s right to abortion is now illegal in many states, and some are also attempting to get rid of birth control and other contraceptives, stripping the rights women have fought for when it comes to their bodies. It’s more important now than ever for women to continue to make their voices heard when it comes to issues affecting them.
“Throughout history, laws have been written by men to control women’s choices, from forced sterilizations to abortion bans to dress codes,” social studies teacher Chassity Mahaska stated. “Even today, women’s bodies are debated like political battlegrounds while men’s autonomy remains unquestioned. That tells us something. Imagine if a room full of women made laws about men’s bodies.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first to fight for women’s rights and their bodies in 1848, and she was a writer and an activist during that time. She didn’t like the fact that women couldn’t be equal and have control over their bodies and identity in society itself. Stanton created an organization when the Declaration of Independence was being passed around and had her bill given to the upper people in the White House to ensure women had their fair share in society. She called it the “Declaration of Sentiments.” She also created an organization she called the Women’s Loyal National League. Her colleague who helped her was Susan B. Anthony. Together they raised women to fight for equality and respect for who they were.
“Control over our bodies is control over our lives,” Mahaska said. “When women don’t have full autonomy, they don’t have full equality. Decisions about pregnancy, healthcare and bodily safety impact everything — our futures, careers, economic stability and even survival.”
With women not being able to choose if they are ready to be moms or not, having those choices stripped from them is sickening, and not having the only freedom for themselves is sad. The government is trying to get rid of resources for women and their reproductive rights with their bodies. That’s why it’s important for women and young ladies to work together and make a change. Agreeing there should be change is easy, but trying to make a change and actually being a leader and doing something takes lots of guts.
“There’s no single hero of women’s rights,” Mahaska said. “Change happens when women refuse to stay silent.”,” Mahaska stated.
Reproductive rights are not the only issues women have had to fight for over the years. Malala Yousafzai is an activist for education for teen girls and in the process of trying to make a difference, she was shot in the head on a bus home in 2012. Atta Ullah Khan, part of the Taliban, which is islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which did this as a sign to scare women in Pakistan, but it didn’t; it made them want to speak up and get louder on what they wanted to change and needed to change.
It wasn’t until around the 1960s when the United States started having conversations about how women were getting paid less than men for doing the same job, and even today women still make less than their male counterparts in many industries. Women also couldn’t open credit cards in their own name without approval from their husband or father until 1974. The Violence Against Women Act, protecting women from domestic violence in all 50 states, wasn’t passed until 1994.
“To put that in perspective, [1994] was two years before I was born,” social studies teacher Candace Winfrey said. “So I am directly a beneficiary of the fight that women have fought in the decades before me. It’s very frustrating that women in their lifetime have been losing the right to have an abortion with Roe v. Wade being overturned, so it was really concerning to me that a lot of progress women have been fighting for is starting to be chipped away. We are going backwards.”
Winfrey said this is why presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign slogan in 2024 was “We are not going back,” and she is worried seeing that exact thing happen now.
Still, we have so many women today who show things can change in society. Masimba Taylor is the first African American woman to be the principal of Warren Central High School. Taylor is a role model for young girls to drive for what you believe in, even in difficult situations.
Taylor said it was never about being the first of anything but instead about serving students and families, but she does enjoy seeing more women of color in the field.
“When I was in school I never had a teacher that looked like me,” Taylor stated. “I love that now I see more of myself within classrooms and buildings. I love that I can play a role in making sure that our students are taught by the best and by individuals who genuinely care about them.”
Some role models, like Taylor, Mahaska and Winfrey, didn’t think they were going to be role models for others. Sometimes it takes just a little noise to make a difference. A little courage can lead to faith, which leads to speaking out against the wrong. So many women do that not realising they are making a change even if they don’t see it. Women doing this can keep other females from experiencing the past difficulties.
The U.S. currently has no constitutional protection for gender equality. The Equal Rights Amendment still hasn’t been ratified. Women still make less than men for the same work. The pay gap is even wider for women of color. Sexual violence and domestic abuse remain widespread. One in three women experiences gender-based violence, yet survivors still struggle for justice. Women are still underrepresented in leadership. In congress, Fortune 500 companies and even Hollywood, men still dominate many decision-making roles
As of today there are still women fighting for justice over their own bodies. Women will continue to fight for what they believe and what needs to change. Women are still not equal to men. Hopefully one day that will change and everyone will have the same opportunities and same equality, especially in the workforce. Women shouldn’t have to fight for the right to an abortion or to have contraceptives. Rights should be provided, not taken.
